Early Life and Family
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman was born on 7 September 1836 at Kelvinside House in Glasgow as Henry Campbell, the second son and youngest of the six children born to Sir James Campbell of Stracathro (1790–1876) and his wife Janet Bannerman (1799–1873). Sir James Campbell had started work at a young age in the clothing trade in Glasgow, before going into partnership with his brother in 1817 to found J.& W. Campbell & Co., a warehousing, general wholesale and retail drapery business. Sir James was elected as a member of Glasgow Town Council in 1831 and stood as a Conservative candidate for the Glasgow constituency in the 1837 and 1841 general elections, before being appointed to serve as the Lord Provost of Glasgow from 1840 to 1843.
Henry's older brother, James, served as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Glasgow and Aberdeen Universities from 1880 to 1906. He was opposed to the majority of his younger brother's policies, and chose to stand down in the same election that would bring Campbell-Bannerman to power. In 1871, Henry Campbell became Henry Campbell-Bannerman, the addition of the surname Bannerman being a requirement of the will of his uncle, Henry Bannerman, from whom he inherited the estate of Hunton Court in Kent.
Campbell-Bannerman was educated at the High School of Glasgow (1845–1847), the University of Glasgow (1851–1853), and Trinity College, Cambridge (1854–1858), where he achieved a Third-Class Degree in Classical Tripos. After graduating, he joined the family firm of J.& W. Campbell & Co., based in Glasgow’s Ingram Street. Campbell was made a partner in the firm in 1860. Following his marriage that year to Sarah Charlotte Bruce, Henry and his new bride set up residence at 6 Clairmont Gardens in the Park district in the West End of Glasgow. The couple never had any children.
Physically the couple, both reportedly enormous eaters, each weighed nearly 20 stone in later years.
Campbell-Bannerman spoke French, German and Italian fluently, and every summer he and his wife spent a couple of months in Europe, usually in France and at the spa town of Marienbad in Bohemia.
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